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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

After a brief break for the Christmas holidays the Edmonton Oilers embarked on a 7 game road-swing last night making their first stop in Vancouver.

Despite yet another loss for the Oilers the hockey world is talking about "the hit" on Alex Plante in the second period. Vancouver's Dale Weise finished his check on Plante, sending the OKC Barons' call up face first into the boards. Planted remained on the ice with blood dripping from his face and never returned to action.

"It was a tough hit. said Oilers bench boss Tom Renney. "There should be a little sabbatical. He came pretty hard, he had a pretty good head of steam up and hew was after on thing and that was to hit and hurt the kids. If Planted is up against the glass, or up against the boards, then the maybe nullifies the issue quiet honestly. But he's about four feet away from the boards and Dale came in and hammered him pretty hard with on objective."

"I respect the call" said Weise who was sent to the showers for the game misconduct. "I think every hi in hockey, if they go by the definition, could be called a charge, but things happen really fast. I made the decision to finish my check. You've got to protect your players."

Plante was asked after the game about the nasty knock and the disheveled defenseman could only muster "I'm OK," to a crowd a reporters.

On the ensuing 5 minute charging major, offered an opportunity for the Oilers to make a comeback after being down by 3 goals. Eberle broke the ice to make the game 3-1 when he tapped in his 16th goal of the season. However, moments later the Canucks' super pest Alex Burrows was left unattended in front of Nikolai Khabibulin to post the games first short handed goal. Less than a minute later, veteran Ryan Smyth put the Oilers within two after receiving a simple feed from Ryan Jones.

In 3's!

3 minutes into the 3rd, Burrows found a swooping Ryan Kesler to punctuate another Canucks victory but this game appeared to be over in early in the first. At the moment of puck drop, the Canucks came out hard and Andrew Ebbett opened the scoring in the first 3 minutes of the game. The Canucks went to post two more before the end of the 1st frame.

"We can't play catchup against those guys. They've got too much firepower." said Jordan Eberle after this 2 point performance.

"We definitely came out slow...that killed us. But getting that power play and then giving up that short handed goal hurts. We have to find a way to score five-on-five. That just goes back to shooting the puck, we have to shoot more.'

Ryan Whitney sat out the game as a precautionary measure due to some tendonitis while Ales Hemsky became an healthy/un-healthy scratch with nasal infection.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

They probably should’ve won in the first two minutes of the game…but after a Calgary time-out the bad guys from Southern Alberta saw red and burned another 2 points in the win column and defeated their foes of the North.

Last night on Hockey Night in Canada, the Edmonton Oilers lost to the visiting Calgary Flames at Rexall Place. The Oilers who had a 2 goal lead early in the game, couldn’t handle the pressure of the Calgary Flames’ offense led by Olli Jokinen’s two goals.

5-3 Flames.

“It could’ve gotten away from us there. They were really rolling. I thought we wer going to get a beating. Fortunately we took a timeout and calmed down and camre right back with a goal on the power play and got out feet back into us and back into it. said Jokinen. “It wasn’t the start we wanted to have” he admitted. “We needed to get back to our game and play good defence agains this team. They are probably the most skilled team in the National Hockey League. They have a lot of offence. If you try to play their style, you are going to lose 10-0.”

After Lennart Petrell and Sam Gagner fooled Mikka Kiprusoff with some fluky, early goals the Flames’ bench boss prompted a Calgary time-out. The time-out worked. Less than 4 minutes later the game was tied and the Flames held the Oilers at bay for the rest of the game.

“We need to ride the momentum better. We’ve been like that all year. When things get high, teams come right back at us, we don’t ride the wave that well. When we learn to do that we’ll bury team. We won’t give them a chance. We can put a team down we just have to keep them down.” said blue collar forward Ryan Jones about his teams lack consistency.

The Oilers coach would agree with Jones, but would add that the team just needs to compete a little harder. Highly skilled teams CAN compete better.

“Calgary found a way to fight their way back into it” said Tom Renney “We’ve just got to compete, and harder than we have been lately because it hasn’t been enough.”

The Oilers and Flames will face each other once again in Calgary next Saturday

Injury report.

The Oilers were once again without the services of Taylor Hall who is out with a shoulder injury for a couple of weeks or more. Also Anton Lander who still has an infected hand but could be back in the line-up soon.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Led by Ryan Jones' hat trick in the third period the Edmonton Oilers went on to down the Columbus Blue Jackets by score of 6-3 to snap a 3 game losing skid.

Jones who was playing in his 202 nd NHL game scored his first ever hat-trick in his entire hockey career. The blue-collar forward decided to bring his top game on a night when the Oilers organization saluted Hall of Famer Grant Fuhr, just prior to game time.

"I've never scored two in a game, so just to get the two is pretty special." said Jones of his trick. "I don't know if you could ever expect that, especially a guy like me just grinding away. The goals don't come that easy.

After being down 2-1, Jones picked up a kicked pass from Ryan Smyth and then wrapped around his 7th goal of the season to tie it. 6 minutes later Jones hammered a one-time from Eric Belanger's stick to put the copper and blue up. Finally, with 37 seconds left in the game and with Curtis Sanford out of the net, Shawn Horcoff intercepted an errant pass at centre and unselfishly fed Jones to earn his 3rd of the night. After the ice was showered with hats, the crowd began to chant "Jones-y Jones-y" to honor the one of the most humbled member of the squad.

"On a night like tonight, especially when we needed them it was something special. It's one of the highlights of my NHL career so far."

Jordan Eberle, Ladislav Smid and Ales Hemsky also contributed to the slaughter. Nearly a minute into the first period, the Oilers went on the power-play and Jordan Eberle wasted no time finishing a perfect pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins from the half boards. Smid, rifled his second goal of the season with a blistering slap-shot, while Ales Hemsky, made his mark when walked around Sanford to earn his 3rd goal of the season.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' assist now brings his total to 28 points. The Rookie is now 5th overall in the league for points and is now 4 behind league leader Phil Kessel of Toronto.

The Edmonton Oilers will now host the Calgary Flames for the Battle of Alberta tonight on CBC!